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Playoffs more important to Landy

Avs F favorite to win Calder Trophy tonight

By Adrian Dater The Denver Post

Posted:
06/19/2012 10:54:26 PM MDT

Updated:
06/19/2012 10:54:28 PM MDT

LAS VEGAS -- Beneath the chandeliers and oak paneling in one of the seemingly endless numbers of restaurants inside the Wynn Casino here, Gabriel Landeskog sat on a nondescript foldout chair and talked about what winning a Calder Trophy might mean.

"I'm not sure I had thought much about it, until maybe late in the season when the media started talking about it a little more," Landeskog said.

"If I win, it will be a huge bonus, but if I don't, it was still a great experience this whole last year."

The Avalanche left wing is the odds-on favorite, though, to take home the Calder. The last player to do it in franchise history was Chris Drury in 1999.

Landeskog, the only Av to play all 82 games this past season, led all NHL rooks in goals (22) and several other categories, including hits, plus-minus, and steals.

St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, sitting across the room from Landeskog while being interviewed as a finalist for coach of the year honors, compared Landeskog to Peter Forsberg -- and not just because he's Swedish.

"I don't know what he's going to be like offensively in the future, but he's got the same kind of strength on the puck and the same willingness to go into the tough places to get a puck," Hitchcock said.

The NHL awards show is tonight, with the Hart, Norris, Selke, et. al to be given away for a year's lease. Landeskog is the only Avalanche player up for an honor.

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A year ago, Landeskog was a virtual unknown to Denver sports fans, just some kid from Sweden supposed to be high on everybody's NHL draft card. When the Avs took him at No. 2 overall, behind Edmonton's Ryan-Nugent Hopkins, they thought they certainly be getting a good player.

But Landeskog seemed to surprise even the most seasoned of NHL observers with just how good he was.

"He wins all the hard areas, and that has a huge impact in the game. And how many guys can you say that about at his age (19)?" Hitchcock said.

"He can take the puck off the boards on you, get to the front of the net and win the battles there. How many 19-year-olds can do that? To me, he's Forsberg in that sense. He's way ahead of people his own age."

Landeskog, a finalist along with Nugent-Hopkins and New Jersey's Adam Henrique, has his father, brother and twin sister on hand for the ceremonies. His mother has another commitment.

Landeskog won't complain about adding a Calder to the trophy case, but he still would have liked to have gotten a taste of what playoff hockey is all about in the NHL.

"I don't know if we didn't have the experience or what. But next year I think we're going to know what it takes to make that playoff push," he said. "We've got to treat every game like a Game 7. Making the playoffs next year is what it's going to be all about for us."

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